Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Biological Education, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, SSCI, Scopus)
Determining pre-service science teachers’ knowledge and understanding of biological catalysts (enzymes) is essential for effective biology instruction. This study aims to examine pre-service teachers’ conceptions of enzymes, including accurate understanding, misconceptions, knowledge gaps, and responses influenced by low confidence or guessing. Designed as a case study, the research was conducted during the 2022–2023 academic year. The participants consisted of 75 pre-service science teachers enrolled at a public university in Turkiye. An open-ended questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. The findings revealed that pre-service science teachers held misconceptions regarding the definition and structure of enzymes, the enzyme-substrate relationship, interpretation of enzyme-related graphs, and the factors affecting enzyme activity. Therefore, it was concluded that pre-service teachers possessed only a partial understanding of the scientific concept of enzymes. These results underscore the need for further research to address both misconceptions and incomplete understanding of enzymes among pre-service teachers. Moreover, studies that explore the underlying causes of these misconceptions and propose strategies to overcome them are likely to make meaningful contributions to the existing body of literature.